Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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128. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the status of the promotion of the green and social procurement agenda; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32345/21]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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In 2019, my Department published Circular 20/2019: Promoting the use of Environmental and Social Considerations in Public Procurement. The Circular instructs Departments to consider including green criteria in public procurement processes where:

- Clearly defined, quantifiable, verifiable, and measurable criteria have been developed by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC), and are relevant to the specific procurement process, and

- The cost can be met within a Department’s existing budget, without impacting on service delivery

Defined, quantifiable, verifiable, and measurable criteria for a number of products and services have been developed by the Environmental Protection Agency under the auspices of DECC and are available in 'Green Procurement - Guidance for the Public Sector', which can be downloaded from gov.ie. These criteria are being updated and new criteria, for a broader range of areas, is expected to be published in 2021. Further guidance on the inclusion of both green and social criteria in public procurement can be found in the Information Note on Incorporating Social Considerations into Public Procurement published by the Office of Government Procurement (OGP) in 2018.

Circular 20/2019 also requires public bodies to incorporate relevant green procurement measures into their planning and reporting cycles. The Environmental Protection Agency was requested by DECC to produce a Reporting and Monitoring template for Green Public Procurement with reports for 2020 due for return in March 2021. I understand the EPA is currently assessing these reports for 2020.

The OGP considers green and social criteria in the development of its solutions on a case by case basis having regard to all relevant factors including marketplace capabilities. In developing solutions, the OGP relies on the support and involvement of the users and policy departments to define their requirements. All OGP solutions meet the necessary minimum standards, legislation, codes of practice and industry standards. In addition, the OGP has included green and social considerations in a range of its solutions, for example, electric vehicles, paper, electricity, confidential shredding and catering supplies.

In addition, Circular 20/2019 draws the attention of Departments to the cross-departmental Social Considerations Advisory Group, which aims to promote and facilitate the incorporation of social considerations, including environmental considerations, into public procurement projects. This group was established by the OGP, and brings together officials from policy departments with public procurement practitioners to share best practice in relevant fields. To align the objectives of the group with Programme for Government commitments, new Terms of Reference were developed in September 2020, and the group has been renamed as the Strategic Procurement Advisory Group (SPAG). This year, the OGP and DECC jointly established an environmental subgroup of the SPAG. This subgroup facilitates more detailed, technical, discussion of approaches to incorporate environmental considerations into procurement.

Furthermore, my officials present at a range of public sector events and seminars to promote the green and social public procurement agenda and will continue to promote utilising the State’s purchasing power to deliver on our commitments to sustainable development and social inclusion. Green and social procurement considerations are also discussed with the key business representative bodies at the SME Advisory Group meeting which is chaired by my colleague, Minister of State Ossian Smyth.